support jobs

[Morticous]

I think it would add an interesting element to this game if they would add support jobs to tank/heal/dps.. so to spell it out.. we need tank/heal/dps/SUPPORT

Archer should split into BARD and Ranger... Bard as we know it today should be renamed to Ranger and remain as DPS while Bard becomes a true support job like it always has been before this game. All songs except possibly the speed song will be moved over to BARD and then replaced with something else.

Then we can add in more support jobs like RDM (always been a support job in my mind supporting whm and occasionally some enfeebs..).

Just like many people like to be healers I'm sure there are people who love to be in support roles.

Now I know some people are going to say they want to be DPS RDM.. but that doesn't even make any sense.. its a support role plain and simple.

But lets not get off topic.. Support roles added!? YES PLEASE!

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as far as the current party set up goes.. they could beef up the 4 man fights to be alittle harder and make them into 5 man fights.. 8 man fights.. they could allow you to make one of the 4 DPS roles available to be a support role instead.. so 3/1/2/2.

[Pylfer]

So red mage becomes a support because you think that it should be a support class? Also why would they change bard from what it is now? Why not just keep bard the same but implement the Ranger class. That being said we are getting the musketeer eventually which will act as the ranged DPS class through and through that everyone wants.

The problem with support classes that aren't DPS is that if they make a class that does nothing but "bebuff" or "Buff" the party, they would need to make those buffs/debuffs last about 15 seconds each to allow that class to have something to do otherwise people would level said class, change to it, buff everyone up, and then change back to the main class. Beyond this, we would also have to face the problem of the new party layout "Tank, Tank, Healer, Healer, De/Buffer, DPS, DPS, DPS". So we're losing a DPS slot which means that things won't die as fast and a whole slew of issues would rise up in regards to rebalancing the whole thing.

Essentially they would need to make this new class capable of inflicting the boss/enemy with more debuffs to stats and dmg and what have you than a summoner already does so that the loss of an additional DPS class to the traditional 8 man party would not impact the difficulty of a fight.

This is the problem with a class that is strictly built around debuffing/buffing. They need to be made viable in the model that Yoshi-P and the dev team have decided to go with. As it stands the only real way to make that work is to slot a class into one of the molds established "Tank, Healer, DPS".

Would you really want to play a class that stands around in Garuda EX, Titan EX, Ifrit EX, Coil T5 just periodically casting spells or doing something that would reduce the bosses damage by a tiny bit for a few seconds that you wouldn't be able to place back on for at least 30 seconds and then doing the same thing to your allies in reverse.

The only way I could see this working is if the class was essentially making it so that the other three DPS classes were doing more damage to make up for the fact that they were down a DPS... That or just make the summoner class again but make it so that virus puts a lower "antibody" buff cooldown on the target.

[Wolf_Gang]

Adding a support job will only cause imbalance.

It's much more lucrative if Support abilities are spread among the DPS classes. i.e. Monks can Dispel and increase healing, Bards can regen tp/mp, BLMs can boost elemental defense, etc.

This increases the viability of each individual DPS class otherwise, groups would only invite the ones with the highest statistical DPS (This was a major problem in FFXI )

[Lumiin]

If they released a buffer class. I'd resub instantly, those are the only classes I like ;-; Buffs/off heal classes. I love em.

[kiraan]

That would recquire a party format change to 5/10/30 instead of 4/8/24 . I think that if they want to do something this big, its not probably before the first ( or even second ) expansion.

I would gladly play a support job! ^^

[Volsung]

While myself and some people, would love a full devoted support class or two
it would take a large restructure of contents/required classes. I'm not saying
it's not possible, just take a lot of work. While the trinity is great for developing
content, and giving players identity, it can sometimes make things like people
that do multiple roles slightly difficult.

Bard is fine the way it is, kinda fun actually, but if they wanted to add any future
full support classes/jobs, it would definitely take some work on SEs side.

[NintenPyjak64]

Keep Bard and just add Ranger. All you need to do is give Ranger 5 DPS utility buffs/skills to actually make it a pure DPS class (Maybe make one of the quests adjust Swiftsong so it's not a song? similar to how Summoner quests change Emerald Carby to Garuda)

What they could do though is give Bard CNJ/ACN as subjobs instead of LNC/PGL to change it to be more support based then DPS based while moving those subjobs to ranger to make it more pure DPS based

[ignacioricci]

If you have a buffer / debuffer you wouldn't necessarily suffer from one less dps.
Imagine deshell or deprotect in enemies. That could have an important dmg boost.

Regarding the balancing, i don't know. I just wouldn't know where to put this job atm.

[Eardstapa]

And here I thought this would be a thread mentioning Support Jobs ala FFXI... AKA MNK/WAR, WAR being the support job. I am disappoint.

[Musashidon]

red mage is a hybrid class part melee part healer part dps, it can't use skills that any of those 3 can use. they don't enfeeble lol 11 screwed rdm waaaay over.